I was doing a search on “Asian Americans” for any of the latest news, and came across this one in The Harvard Crimson: “Asian American Studies Still Waiting for an Entrance“:
“In 1987, Mark H. Kuo ’90 helped collect hundreds of student signatures to petition the University to hire an Asian American studies professor…Twenty years later, it’s déjà vu. The University still has no permanent professor in Asian American studies, and the Asian American Association (AAA) is starting yet another campaign to bring the field to Harvard. Despite years of flourishing at other universities, Asian American studies is still struggling to gain traction in Cambridge. The former chair of Harvard’s history department says that a general slowdown in social science and humanities growth in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is partly to blame, and that advocates of Asian American studies have yet to make a compelling argument for why it should be emphasized. But others say that Harvard simply isn’t giving the study of Asian American history and culture the recognition it deserves…At west coast universities, where the historic influence of Asian American communities is stronger, Asian American studies has been an established field since the early 1970s. But over the last two decades, the field has moved east to find a home at Ivy League institutions. At Cornell, whose Asian American studies program was founded in 1978, students can take a course called “The Asian American Urban Experience.” The University of Pennsylvania offers “Asian-Americans in the Media.” Both schools have minors in Asian American studies and offer more than a dozen courses in the field every year. Meanwhile, Harvard’s course guide lists only four Asian American Studies courses offered at FAS this year—all taught by the same visiting professor, Eric Tang.”
When I read this article, I thought it was pretty sad that for a university like Harvard - with its wealth, resources, prestige and vast academic offerings across a multitude of disciplines, that Harvard had to depend on a visiting professor from the University of Illinois-Chicago to teach all of its courses on Asian American Studies.
Harvard’s African American Studies department is reputed to be one of the best in the nation. I’m not sure about Harvard’s other ethnic study programs, but it would seem like there has been student interest and demand for over 20 years that Harvard could be making more of an effort, at least to have a qualified Harvard professor to teach any course on Asian American studies. What do you think? (Note: Harvard’s Asian American undergraduate enrollment is about 17%)
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yoko wrote:
I think Harvard is severely remiss in not making steps to add this field of studies to their academic programs, and that pressure should continue to be put on them by various groups until this concentration is added. Asian American studies, as mentioned in the article, is already a legitimate concentration in accredited universities; to cite “lack of space” at an Ivy school is a lame excuse.
Posted on 10-Dec-07 at 7:23 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Asian American Students and School Stereotypes: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] By the way, I find some irony that this Harvard senior thesis is being reported on, considering my previous posting on Harvard’s lack of Asian American Studies program ( Harvard Crimson: Asian American Studies Still Waiting for an Entrance). [...]
Posted on 08-Jan-08 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Couple gives UCLA $1 million to further Chinese American studies: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] The article also notes that the UCLA Asian American Studies Center has the largest Asian American studies program in the nation, “with 45 faculty members, two academic journals, extensive archives and endowed chairs for research on Japanese Americans and Korean Americans.” - that’s pretty impressive, especially when you compare it to Harvard’s meager offerings in Asian American studies. [...]
Posted on 20-Feb-08 at 12:03 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Yale: Task Force seeks to widen Asian-American courses: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] looks like that Harvard University isn’t the only Ivy League university having problems offering a breadth or depth of courses Asian-American courses and studies. The Yale Daily News [...]
Posted on 29-Feb-08 at 1:27 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » PENN: Asian American Studies department funding: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] schools and their Asian American Studies programs (or lack there of). I’ve blogged about Harvard and Yale, and the other day, i came across a posting on Angry Asian Man about the University of [...]
Posted on 04-Apr-08 at 2:09 pm | Permalink